Marco Rubio drops primary ballot challenge to John Kasich in Pennsylvania: Kasich short of the needed 2,000

So it wasn't a matter of principle at work to Rubio, just self-interest while he was still a candidate. Dropping the challenge now that he's out ensures that Rubio's spoiler strategy continues in the person of John Kasich. Denying Trump delegates is still the mission.

Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity keep misrepresenting Marco Rubio as a conservative. Little Marco's actions even now prove otherwise.

From the story here:

The Kasich campaign's lawyer had agreed that Kasich's paperwork was eight valid signatures short of the 2,000 required, but he maintained that the challenge was invalid because it was filed after the deadline.

Florida's Rick Scott joins three other governors endorsing Trump

Noted here:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is calling on the Republican Party to come together and support Donald Trump. ... Trump has earned the endorsements of current governors Chris Christie of New Jersey, Paul LePage of Maine, and Jan Brewer, the former governor of Arizona.

Told you so: Trump needs only to maintain his current level of support to win, not increase it

The New York Times, here:

If Mr. Trump maintains his current level of support in the remaining races, he would almost certainly secure the nomination.

With delegate allocation still incomplete at Real Clear Politics after yesterday's primaries, Donald Trump needs to garner less than 53% of the remaining delegates to win, a level consistent with his actual performance at the beginning of March (see here).

Trump has consistently needed between 50% and 54% of outstanding delegates to win throughout the period to date since February contests ended.

With his wins yesterday the percentage needed is moving back toward 50%, indicating his momentum is increasing.

Good news, Trump pulls the trigger: No more Republican debates

Story here.

His first executive order.

John Boehner voted for Kasich yesterday, calls Cruz "lucifer" and wants Paul Ryan if no one wins the primaries

Here:

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference here. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

Trump crushes previous nominees' performance yesterday and Limbaugh talks John Kasich, Marco Rubio and a shooting story

A speech last night by Marco Rubio suspending his campaign proves to Limbaugh that Marco is the real deal while his one accomplishment in an otherwise feckless Senate career proves otherwise, that's what you should be thinking about.

Maybe Rush is waiting for the drugs to kick in. 

Trump 2016 handily beats both McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012 in OH, IL, FL, MO, NC primaries by 39% (but not Romney in NC)

Ohio: McCain 636,256 Romney 460,831 Trump 727,832 (Trump by 14% over McCain)

Illinois: McCain 426,777 Romney 435,859 Trump 548,528 (Trump by 26% over Romney)

Florida: McCain 701,761 Romney 776,159 Trump 1,075,094 (Trump by 39% over Romney)

Missouri: McCain 194,145 Romney 63,882 Trump 382,093 (Trump by 97% over McCain)

North Carolina: McCain 383,085 Romney 638,601 (both were May cleanup primaries by the defacto nominees), Trump 458,151

Overall Trump by 39%: McCain 2.34 million Romney 2.37 million Trump 3.2 million 

Republican primary turnout in 2016 up 52% from 2008 in OH, IL, FL, MO and NC, Democrat enthusiasm in 2008 still beats by 9%

2008: 5.05 million

2016: 7.66 million

In the five states mentioned Republicans are voting in numbers 17.5% higher than Democrats in 2016.

In 2008 Democrats had all the enthusiasm: Democrats turned out in numbers 65% higher than Republicans.

Democrat turnout in these states in 2008 still beats Republican turnout in 2016 by 9%.

Democrat primary turnout down 22% overall from 2008 in OH, IL, FL, MO and NC combined

2008: 8.35 million

2016: 6.52 million

Missouri Primary 2016 turnout up 50% among Republicans, down 25% among Democrats compared to 2008

With Missouri still officially too close to call but with Trump in the lead by 1,726 votes in the Republican primary over Ted Cruz, turnout in 2016 is running 0.9 million v 0.6 million in 2008, up 50%.

Democrat turnout is down 25% at 0.6 million in 2016 v 0.8 million in 2008 with Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by 1,531 votes.

North Carolina Primary 2016 turnout about equal for both parties, just like in 2012

Republicans turned out 1.1 million in 2016 while Democrats turned out 1.08 million, rising just 13% and 11% over 2012 respectively.

In 2012 each party turned out 0.97 million in North Carolina (Obama of course was the Democrat incumbent president that year; Romney swept with almost 66% of the vote).

In 2008 Republicans turned out only 0.5 million (McCain swept with 74%) while 1.6 million Democrats duked out their contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Clinton lost to Obama by 230,000 votes in 2008, but in 2016 she has beaten Bernie Sanders by 156,000.

Trump's victory over Cruz in 2016 is by less than 40,000 votes.

Florida Republican Primary 2016 turnout up big as homeboys Trump and Rubio duke it out

Democrat turnout fell slightly from 1.75 million in 2008 to 1.66 million in 2016, about 5%.

Florida's closed Republican primary saw 2016 turnout rise to 2.27 million from 1.95 million in 2008 and 1.7 million in 2012, up 16% and 34% respectively.

Illinois Primary 2016 turnout up 53% among Republicans, unchanged among Democrats

Democrat turnout in the primary in 2016 was about the same as in 2008: 1.97 million v 2 million.

Republican turnout was considerably higher in 2016 over prior years. In both 2008 and 2012 Republicans turned out 0.9 million voters, but this year it's up to 1.38 million, 53% higher.

The reason?

Well it ain't Ted Cruz.

In Ohio it looks like independents came out big for John Kasich yesterday

Democrat primary turnout in 2008 in Ohio was 2.2 million (in 2012 0.5 million for the incumbent Obama), but in the 2016 contest last night it struggled to round off at 1.2 million.

On the Republican side, turnout yesterday in Ohio was 2 million in contrast to 2008 and 2012 when turnout was 1.1 million and 1.2 million respectively.

Since Republicans and independents only could vote in the Republican primary in Ohio, not Democrats, it looks like independent support for the Ohio governor carried the day for John Kasich yesterday.

Trump declared the winner in Illinois

Trump and Clinton win North Carolina

Drudge can't spell Missouri

Kasich and Clinton declared winners in Ohio

Little Marco finally drops out of the race for president

The Hill reports here:

Marco Rubio dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Tuesday night after losing badly to Donald Trump in his home state of Florida.

Trump and Clinton declared victors in Florida

Sorry Mark Levin, Ted Cruz is not a constitutionalist . . .

. . . he's a Canadian.

Polling in the Iowa Democrat Presidential Caucus 2016 got it wrong by 95%

Polling in the Massachusetts Democrat Presidential Primary 2016 got it wrong by 79%

Polling in the Oklahoma Democrat Presidential Primary 2016 was off by an astounding 620%

Polling in the South Carolina Democrat Presidential Primary got it wrong by 73%

Polling in the New Hampshire Democrat Primary got it wrong by 68%

Polling in the Michigan Democrat Presidential Primary only got it wrong by 107%

Arizona caller to Laura Ingraham devastates Rush Limbaugh, says he's part of the establishment that doesn't listen

Well, he is deaf.

Hillary: In Libya "we didn't lose a single person"

Except for those four guys in Benghazi, who still don't count to her.

Here:

"Now, is Libya perfect? It isn't." Clinton said. After contrasting her approach toward Libya with the ongoing bloodshed in Syria's civil war, Clinton said "Libya was a different kind of calculation and we didn't lose a single person ... We didn’t have a problem in supporting our European and Arab allies in working with NATO."

Ted Cruz piling on Donald Trump as divisive like Obama reminds me of . . .

. . . the mushy headed liberal George W. Bush smearing Pat Buchanan as a 1920s nativist.

New Hampshire taught us that nothing John Kasich says can be taken seriously

December 28th:  “If I get buried in New Hampshire, it’s over.”

February 9th: Trump 35.3% over Kasich 15.8% in New Hampshire (2.2:1)

March 14th: "This is the craziest election that we've had in decades. And I'm taking things one day at a time."

Like Mussolini, Trump breathes air

Die you hypocrites, die.

It's hard to overstate what an ignoramus is Mark Levin about tariffs and trade

Mark Levin is a lawyer, not an historian, and not an economist, and not much of a hail fellow well met, either. Always seeking approval at others' expense, he should rather seek to convince without spite than to confound without understanding.

His tariff rant this evening ignores that the America of his precious founders was a tariff regime until the dreaded income tax of 1913.

The America of the founders was also a limited government for that reason until that very day.

But open wide the avenue for revenue, and you open the maw of the Leviathan and crawl into it.

We haven't been the same since, slowly dissolving in its mandibular juices on our way to the shit pile of history.

If Mark Levin had any brains about the founding, he'd know this.

There's that 47% figure again: The percentage of Muslim-Americans who consider themselves Muslim first

Here.

Ted Cruz' many flip-flops: Obamatrade, foreign workers, illegal alien amnesty, birthright citizenship, Edward Snowden, crop insurance

Nicely detailed with links by Laura Ingraham, here.

John Kasich would legalize all illegals within the first 100 days of his presidency, which would open the floodgates to millions more

Noted here in a list of all Kasich's extreme positions on illegal immigration:

In last Thursday’s CNN debate, Kasich told voters that he would enact the largest amnesty in U.S. history within his first 100 days in office. “For the 11 and a half million who are here, then in my view if they have not committed a crime since they’ve been here, they get a path to legalization. Not to citizenship. I believe that program can pass the Congress in the first 100 days,” Kasich said.

Hillary's jobs plan: We are going to put a lot of coal miners out of business

Last night, video here.

Defectors from Cruz to Trump are getting through to talk radio this morning

To both the Laura Ingraham Show and the Chris Plante Show, citing the failure of Cruz to stick to principle over the left's attacks on Trump rally attendees in Chicago.

John Kasich spotted supporting Trump

OK, maybe it's his twin brother.

Here.

Donald Trump appeared in Boca Raton, Florida tonight in a scene right out of Patton

Cruz doubles down on tactics of the left, weds Trump to Obama (who might as well be Hitler) as divisive

Like Benedict Arnold John Kasich learned nothing by being present at the founding

David Horowitz, here.

Trump: The man without a compass goes from racist to violent ideologue in one week

The hysteria continues.

And if that doesn't work, they'll try something else next week.

Prediction: Marco Rubio will become a Democrat after his US Senate term expires

Yeah, I know, whattayamean after.

Losing the propaganda war: Foolish Rush Limbaugh's big Lewandowski problem

Rush Limbaugh let his partisanship for Ted Cruz show on Friday when he prematurely ejaculated all over the Corey Lewandowski non-story here and here before it became clear here and here that Michelle Fields is just trying to sell her boobs new book.

Friday was a very bad day for Rush Limbaugh and the other Ted Cruz propagandists.

None of them dared touch the radioactive bombshell Drudge stories showing Ted Cruz has been faking his Southern Baptist bona fides. ("If we don't cover it, it doesn't exist").

Limbaugh's attempt to make the Carson endorsement of Trump the story of the day instead of Cruz' lies about his background utterly failed.

And now the Lewandowski story falls apart.

But expect no mea culpas from Limbaugh or any of the others.

They're just a pack of weasels.

Who's the worse liar, Obama or Cruz?

Obama lied (among many other things) about his mother's health insurance, but Cruz lied about his religion.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Legal immigrant for Trump expresses outrage that illegals try to cut in line when his family complied with the law

This morning in Bloomington, Illinois at a rally for Trump.

Constitutional law prof featured in WaPo argues Ted Cruz is ineligible to be president

Mary Brigid McManamon, constitutional law professor at Widener University’s Delaware Law School.

Here on January 12th:

Donald Trump is actually right about something: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is not a natural-born citizen and therefore is not eligible to be president or vice president of the United States.

Trump: News cameras zoom in on rally disruptions, never pan to show the thousands supporting him

Here:

Interruptions have become so common that they fit into a part of Trump’s familiar talking points. He complains that news cameras won’t pan a venue to show the breadth of his following when he asks. But, he insists, those lenses will peer into the crowd if a protest breaks out. “The dishonest, disgusting media,” he said at The Midland. Saturday night, he pledged to press charges against anyone who disrupts his speeches. “They have to explain to Mom and Dad why they have a record!” he said. The crowd hooted in appreciation.

Good idea!

Flashback: 20% of self-identified conservatives voted for Obama in 2008*

*Tony Blankley, American Grit (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2009), 185.

And it looks like they'll be voting for Hillary in 2016.

John Kasich also has too few signatures to run in Illinois, but no one cares!

Ain't democracy wonderful? John Kasich doesn't care about the rules, and neither does anyone else!

Here:

CHICAGO, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Despite not receiving the minimum number of signatures required in all congressional districts in Illinois, Ohio Gov. John Kasich will remain on the ballot.

Last week was the deadline for candidates to submit signatures to appear on the ballot in the state's March 15 primary. Kasich did not have enough valid signatures in the 1st, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th congressional districts, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. In the 14th district alone, he is short by 779 signatures.

Kasich campaign admits it doesn't have enough valid signatures to run in Pennsylvania

Here:

HARRISBURG — Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s own lawyer agrees the presidential campaign submitted fewer valid signatures than are required for the candidate to appear on Pennsylvania’s primary ballot. But he argued in court Wednesday that it doesn’t matter because an objection to Mr. Kasich’s nominating petitions was filed 13 minutes too late.

Imagine how media would cover conservatives shutting down an Obama rally

John Kasich isn't the only Ohio Republican who voted for NAFTA: So did John Boehner and Rob Portman

Here 17 November 1993.

House Roll Call here.

Black Lives Matter, Bernie Sanders supporters and move on dot ogre were responsible for shutting down Chicago Trump rally

Noted here:

And perhaps more to the point, who were these protesters? As some MSM outlets almost reluctantly reported, it was a mixed bag of Black Lives Matter activists and Bernie Sanders supporters. ...

And when you need to organize this many marchers, you can’t do it without MoveOn.org taking credit and rounding up the troops. This was staged well in advance by a group of protesters who organized it via Facebook.

Like Ted Cruz, John Kasich blames Chicago violence on Trump, not on leftists committing it, supporters balk

Leftists shut down Trump rally in Chicago through sheer numbers, intimidation and violence

From a legal immigrant who was there, here:

What I did see, however, was fear. Fear from the rally attendees for their immediate safety, and fear of Donald Trump from the protesters.

More than that, I feel that I experienced today, for the first time in my life, true totalitarianism and authoritarianism, expressed laterally from citizen to citizen, in order to silence opinions from being shared. This enforcement was shared through sheer numbers and intimidation, and in a few cases, violence.

People brought their children, loved ones, and friends to attend the Trump rally. I saw an older Asian man and his white wife in attendance, and the looks on their faces when the rally was declared cancelled almost broke my heart. I saw scared children clinging to their parents’ sides as they exited the building to the screams of protesters. I saw a quiet, but excited crowd of Donald Trump supporters get thrown out of Chicago.

Worst of all, I saw the first amendment trampled, spit on, and discarded like trash.

Two-faced Ted Cruz blames Trump's own campaign for violent protests by leftists at Chicago rally

Expect defections from lyin' Ted to soar after this sorry episode.

Video here.

Only Michael Savage talked on the radio today about the Ted Cruz religion story

And even though he's a Jew, Michael Savage grasped the meaning:

Ted Cruz is a phony because he claims to be a mainstream evangelical when he's really part of the Christian lunatic fringe.

Do we really want such a person in the Oval Office?

That's all.

Rush tries to make the story today about Ben Carson instead of Ted Cruz' religion, throws Carson under the bus for endorsing Trump

Here:

CARSON:  Some people said, "But, well, you know, he said terrible things about you; how can you support him?"  Well, first of all, we buried the hatchet.  That was political stuff.  And, you know, that happens in American politics.  The politics of personal destruction and all that is not something that I particularly believe in or anything that I get involved in.  But I do recognize that it is a part of the process.  We move on because it's not about me; it's not about Mr. Trump. It's about America.  And this is what we have to be thinking about.  I have found, in talking with him, that, you know, there's a lot more alignment philosophically and spiritually than I ever thought that there was.

RUSH:  Okay, well, that's... I'm sitting here thinking, "If that's just politics, why are you so upset at Ted Cruz for believing what CNN tweeted about leaving the campaign and heading back to Florida?"  Well, no, I'm just asking.  Well, yeah. "How can you support Trump? He said some terrible things about you." "Well, we buried the hatchet. It's political stuff, you know? That kind of stuff happens in politics."  Well, he must not have forgiven Ted Cruz.  Ted Cruz didn't do anything!  Ted Cruz never said anything like what Trump said about Ben Carson.  But we're not through here.  Carson continued...

Flashback to last June here:

Dr. Benjamin Carson is one of the finest, most accomplished human beings on this planet who has done more for people than most people in politics will ever do.  And he's done it personally, not with other people's money. Dr. Ben Carson is a first-class human being and citizen.  He is exactly the kind of person that you could trust running any government institution.  You would trust him to babysit your kids.  He's just an admirable human being.  He has overcome great odds.  He's brilliant.  He's temperate.  There is everything in the world to recommend about the humanity of Dr. Benjamin Carson, and here he is on CNN today ripped and said it's unfortunate that somebody like Ben Carson will be made to look serious when Trump gets in as the clown. 

Mark Levin's problem is that he's a disciple of a disciple

William F. Buckley, Jr.

Rush Limbaugh talks about anything to avoid the Ted Cruz bombshell story of the day

For a guy who claims to take his daily agenda from the headlines, Rush Limbaugh sure made a point of not talking about them today because the headlines crucify his hero Ted Cruz as the liar Donald Trump has been telling us he is since Iowa.

In the process Rush made an ASS of himself, ultimately comparing Donald Trump to Sean Penn, and even attacking the credibility of Ben Carson, who endorsed Trump this morning.

What a jerk. Previously Limbaugh called Carson, and more than once, one of the finest people alive.

These were easily the most telling three hours about the limitations of one Rush Hudson Limbaugh since his prescription drug scandal years ago.

A truly pathetic performance unworthy of the conservative cause.

Campaigning for Cruz: Limbaugh compares Donald Trump to Sean Penn. Isn't such a comparison a tactic of the left?

He just said Trump admires the strength of the Chicoms putting down the Tiananmen Square freedom movement the way Sean Penn admires the likes of communist strongmen Chavez and Castro.

See?

Update:

Here's the money quote:

[Trump] was simply admiring the strength or pointing out what a powerfully strong government can do.  Hey, this is why what's-his-face, Sean Penn, loves Castro.  It's why Sean Penn loved what's-his-face down in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.  They envied the power.  No question about. 

Rush is willing to jettison conservative principles and cross this line because his loyalty to Ted Cruz is more important than those things are.

Total hypocrite. 

Rush knows Ted Cruz is toast

Rush is doing all but endorsing Ted Cruz on the show today.

National Review joins Mark Levin in endorsing the guy who's been lying about his real religion

Ted's a dominionist, so now we know what's the matter with Kansas (24 delegates)

And Idaho (20 delegates).

So lying Ted Cruz has been misrepresenting himself as a Southern Baptist when he's really a Pentecostal

And a pretty kooky Pentecostal at that:

While Ted Cruz proudly proclaims he is an Evangelical Christian, his campaign takes pains to hide the truth that Cruz and his pastor father, Rafael Cruz are Pentecostal Christians, a fact further hidden by having Ted and Heidi Cruz’s belong to the congregation of First Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist church in Houston, as their home church. ...

Rafael Cruz is a pastor with Purifying Fire International Ministry, although in January 2014, as Ted Cruz was preparing his presidential swing, Rafael Cruz scrapped the group’s website after various blogs began identifying the ministry as rooted in “a radical Christian ideology known as Dominionism or Christian Reconstructionism.”

Dominionism calls on anointed Christian leaders to take over government to make the laws of the nation in accordance with Biblical laws. Rafael Cruz, at the Pastor Larry Huch’s New Beginnings mega-church in Bedford Texas, outside Dallas, on Aug. 26, 2012, in a Dominionist sermon proclaimed his son, Ted Cruz, to be the “anointed one,” a Dominionist Messiah who would bring God’s law to reign.

Some people could sincerely mistake Ted Cruz for having followers who salute him like a Hitler, too

Video here, where they're really "laying on hands".

Hm, Hillary Clinton defender David Gregory's wife Beth Wilkinson is the lawyer for Cheryl Mills and other Clinton aides

David Gregory, quoted here:

"I think there's no reason to suspect that she's even a target in a criminal probe....I thought it was a bit pointed as a question, and I think it was fair for her not to answer."

h/t Chris Plante 

(story)

Ted Cruz' dog whistle to the left/liberal consensus, insinuates Trump supporters give him the "Sieg, Heil!"

A new low for Cruz.

From the transcript of the Miami debate last night, here:

CRUZ: ... You know, at Donald's rallies recently, he's taken to asking people in the crowd to raise their hand and pledge their support to him.

Now, I got to say to me, I think that's exactly backwards. This is a job interview. We are here pledging our support to you, not the other way around.

Trump causes a disturbance in the Ministry of Plenty, where "Intel" isn't just a partner but a conjunction

Trump is smart to ask Republicans to embrace the new voters he's bringing in to the process

He opened the debate with that sentiment, and closed it the same way.

I hope the Republican Establishment is listening.

Trump made a good point about delegates

Getting half, 1,237, to get the nomination is entirely arbitrary.

The primary/caucus system is messy, inconsistent and hardly a level playing field in some respects.

Trump's dim view of gridlock isn't encouraging

Gridlock is built in: It's called the separation of powers.

Ted Cruz is a disgusting liar about Trump rally pledges

Trump doesn't ask people to pledge "to him" but "to vote for him" at the primary.

CNN's asking softball Cuba questions to help boost Rubio

Rubio has the right attitude toward Cuba.

The Miami audience ate it up.

So Ted Cruz is for boots on the ground in Syria against ISIS, too

So the only one of the four who hasn't been for this is Donald Trump, but now he says he will send them in.

Very disappointing.

Previously he was for letting the Russians carry the load.

John Kasich shouldn't speak French if he can't pronounce it

rapprochement |ˌrapˌrōSHˈmäN, -ˌrôSH-|

Ted Cruz is a doctrinaire free-trader who won't punish trade malefactors

He has no solution for the mercantilist war on America waged by China et alia. Meanwhile America will continue to bleed jobs.

John Kasich is in the black in Ohio because he gets an extra $2.5 billion a year in Medicaid from the feds

Because he signed up for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, contrary to what his legislature wanted.

Social Security tax rates have been raised 20 times since 1937, they can be raised again and the world won't end

John Kasich just said he wants to legalize people here illegally

This is unfair to everyone who came here legally, people who obeyed our law.

Trump is right. They have to go.

Cruz has momentum? He needs 61% of remaining delegates, up from 59% on Monday

Trump needs 54% of remaining delegates, unchanged from Monday (the difference is a rounding error).

Cruz' momentum has slowed by 3.4%.

Conservatives don't realize how much Ted Cruz owes to George W. Bush because talk radio never mentions it

How is it that Rush Limbaugh's closest thing to Reagan is a Bushie, hm?

Reported here:

The Bush-Cruz connection is clear. Ted was George W.’s brain when he ran for president. A top policy adviser, Ted maneuvered for Solicitor General in Bush World but settled for a plum at the Federal Trade Commission. Ted’s a Bush man with deep ties to the political and financial establishment.  Ted and wife Heidi brag about being the first “Bush marriage” – they met as Bush staffers. Cruz was an adviser on legal affairs while Heidi was an adviser on economic policy and eventually director for the Western Hemisphere on the National Security Council under Condoleezza Rice. Condi helped give us the phony war in Iraq. Heidi then went to the Bush U.S. Trade Representative as a top deputy to U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick, who wired Heidi’s membership in the Council on Foreign Relations and job at Goldman Sachs. The bailed-out bank then loaned Cruz $1 million secretly to finance his Senate race. Cruz would also borrow an undisclosed $1 million loan from Citicorp.

Camille Paglia likes Trump's swaggering retro machismo, is repelled by Cruz' weirdly womanish face

Here:

Cruz’s lugubrious, weirdly womanish face, with its prim, tight smile and mawkishly appealing puppy-dog eyebrows, is like a waxen mask, always on the verge of melting.

Carly Fiorina, call your office.

Ted Cruz is a numbskull: He should try to co-opt Trump's voters, not insult them

Ted Cruz, quoted here:

“Donald does well with voters who have relatively low information, who are not that engaged and who are angry and they see him as an angry voice," Cruz told The Brody File on Wednesday.

Trump now needs 54% of the remaining delegates to get to 1237

That's 779 delegates needed.

901 of the remaining 1442 delegates available are in 17 "winner take all" contests.

But Colorado (37) and Wyoming (29) delegates, still unallocated, are still in play at their respective state conventions, to be concluded by mid-April.

Plus delegates for Carson (8) are in play because he withdrew.

Ohio surplus due to Medicaid expansion, not to John Kasich's special skills

The Toledo Blade reported here . . . a year ago:

COLUMBUS — The infusion of billions in federal funds to pay for expanded Medicaid coverage in Ohio has had the side effect of dramatically increasing the state’s ability to put away money for a rainy day, as well as its power to borrow.

Ohio expects to finish the current fiscal year with a surplus of $970.4 million. It will transfer more than half of that amount at the last minute to help pay for proposed income tax cuts, unemployment compensation interest payments to the federal government, a proposed student debt reduction program, and other items.

But the remaining $374 million would be transferred to the state’s so-called rainy-day fund, budgetary reserves capped by law at no more than 5 percent of the general revenue fund. That would bring the balance in the fund to just under $1.9 billion, well above the current balance of roughly $1.5 billion.

John Kasich's Ohio miracle is totally phony and depended entirely on federal money through Medicaid expansion under Obamacare

No wonder John Kasich took the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.

John Kasich has been bad for Ohioans, is already poison for the presidential race, and will be terrible for the country if allowed anywhere near the Oval.

From the story here:

Wal-Mart is a perennial leader, and at the time had nearly 18,000 Ohio employees covered by Medicaid, followed by McDonald’s with over 14,000 jobs. Next in line, respectively, came Kroger, Wendy’s and Bob Evans with a combined 17,000 plus workers using Medicaid.

So when Gov. Kasich went around his very right-wing legislature, which didn’t want to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, he was thinking about more than the normal people “living in the shadows.” He saw $2.5 billion a year in federal money and knew he could both shed state expenses and give aid and support to a few of Ohio’s biggest corporations, which are too cheap to pay their workers a living wage, defined by enough income to pay their expenses without being “dependent” on government safety net programs like Medicaid. John Kasich loves to talk about personal responsibility for individuals, but has nothing to say about the same responsibility to the biggest, richest corporations.

This observation on what Gov. Kasich was doing came from a progressive economic think tank that gets little attention at the legislature. Zach Schiller, a spokesman for Policy Matters Ohio, said Ohio’s safety-net services, including Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance, “shouldn’t have to be used in significant ways by multimillion-dollar companies getting tax breaks. They should be able to adequately pay their employees.”

Carly Fiorina endorses Cruz in incoherent rant against Trump, ineffectively equating him with Hillary Clinton

Here:

"The truth is that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin," Fiorina said Wednesday, ripping the GOP front-runner.  "They aren't going to reform the system. They are the system."

Fiorina noted that many in the Republican Party are "horrified by Donald Trump. I'm one of them," she added, describing Cruz as "the only guy who can beat Donald Trump."

"Ted Cruz has always been a constitutional conservative," Fiorina said, adding that he "didn’t care if he got invited to the cocktail parties in D.C. ... It is time now to unite behind the one man who can beat Donald Trump, who can beat Hillary Clinton, who can beat the D.C. cartel. It is time to unite behind Ted Cruz," Fiorina said to roaring cheers.

I thought everybody in "the system" hated Trump, indeed is "horrified by" him to the extent of the #NeverTrump movement among Republicans, unlike Clinton who is the darling of her political party, the host of the cocktail parties, and the queen of Wall Street cash.

Carly should check out the concept of synonyms: The system = the cartel = The Establishment.

It's hard to imagine two things more deadly to "the system" than enforcing immigration laws and rewriting "free-trade" agreements to benefit American workers instead of American corporations.

You know. Like Hewlett-Packard. 

Did that ARG poll in Michigan showing Kasich +2 over Trump turn out to be total BS or what?

Democrat turnout in Michigan's presidential primary was up 97% over 2008, so how is Donald Trump's big win here caused by Democrat cross-over votes?

The big story in Michigan is that Democrats turned out in force in the closely fought race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It was a two point race that went down to the wire, won by Bernie by 20,000 votes out of 1.18 million cast.

But the conventional wisdom among Republicans is we're supposed to believe that there were enough large numbers of Democrats left who were energized to cross over and vote for Donald Trump to take him to victory over "real" Republicans like Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Marco Rubio.

This has to be the kookiest theory yet promoted by The Stupid Party.

I think Trump was chosen here by heretofore inactive Republican-leaning voters, not by Democrats.

God knows there's millions out there who never participate in elections. In Michigan we typically have trouble getting turnout to 20% of the voting age population. In presidential election years it averages 18.32%.

Turnout yesterday broke records going back before 1980, at 34%.  

Republican turnout was up over 30% from 2012, and over 50% from 2008, but Democrat turnout was up a whopping 97% over 2008 when Hillary and Obama famously duked it out.

A total of 601,219 votes were cast in the 2008 Democrat Primary, but in 2016 1.18 million. (There was no Democrat primary here in 2012. It was a pro-forma caucus in which 195,058 votes were cast, the vast majority for the incumbent president Barack Obama.)

Democrats were too preoccupied yesterday fighting over Hillary and Bernie to care much about Donald Trump.

That's the good news for Trump supporters, and the bad news for his Republican opponents. Donald Trump is remaking the Republican Party with support from people who appreciate his issues and strong leadership instead of theirs: manufacturing jobs, illegal immigration and trade.

Yesterday they came out of the woodwork to vote for him.

Tampa Bay Times eviscerates Marco Rubio's long accomplishment-free record

"Throughout his political career, Rubio has focused on promoting himself and preparing for his next move rather than providing leadership to effectively address the challenges of the moment. Relying on a charming personality and a smooth speaking style, he has been more talk than action, more gimmick than substance, more opportunist than committed public servant. The result is a thin resume, a reputation for failing to pay attention to detail and a tendency to bend when the political winds shift. ... Let's remember that Rubio's single term in the U.S. Senate has been devoid of a single significant accomplishment ... A vote for Rubio may be a protest vote — but it won't be a vote for someone who is prepared to be president."

Read the whole thing here.

Trump drives Republican turnout 52% above 2008, 32% above 2012 in Michigan primary

Michigan Republican primary 2008: 869,169 votes cast (Romney: 338,316)

Michigan Republican primary 2012: 996,499 (Romney: 409,522)

Michigan Republican primary 2016: 1,318,297 (99% reporting, Trump: 481,296)

Trump 2016 creams Romney 2012 and McCain 2008 in Michigan Republican presidential primary

Donald Trump 2016: 481,296

Mitt Romney 2012:   409,522

John McCain 2008:   257,985

With just four still in the race, The Stupid Party in Michigan wastes 45,470 votes on 9 former candidates

In denial of Trump sweep of Michigan counties, Rubio supporter Rep. Bill Huizenga of Zeeland maintains West Michigan will never vote for Trump

On the Steve Gruber Show in the last segment.

Rubio didn't win a single county.

Donald Trump's little known involvement as a material, early supporter of Ronald Reagan

The UK Daily Mail reported here in May 2015:

'Donald Trump was on the Reagan Finance Committee in 1979-80 when most of the New York financial elite were for George Bush or John Connally,' the former campaign aide told Daily Mail Online, on condition of anonymity.

Trump and his father Fred were in the room when Reagan announced his candidacy in New York City in 1980, he explained, adding that without Trump the 40th president might have been dead in the water.

'When the phone company said it would be 30 to 60 days before they could install our phones at the Reagan for President headquarters on 52nd street,' he recalled, 'I called Donald Trump. They installed the phones the next day.'

'Donald also let us use his helicopter to fly our delegate petitions to Albany, where we filed 15 minutes before closing at the board of elections.'

And Fred Trump 'loaned the campaign some space in a building he owned in Queens,' the Reagan veteran said. 'Donald got us space on 52nd street. They were among a handful of Reagan's earliest New York Supporters.'

Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorses Trump, but oh, sorry Schatzi, with no "Sieg, Heil!"

Rubio NOT surging in Florida: only 300 show for rally